Chinese Poker

Chinese Poker Overview

Chinese Poker also known as Rusian Poker, Xap Xam or Xap Xam Chuong is a card game that has been played across Asia for many years, slowly gaining popularity in other regions of the world. Perhaps the biggest draw to Chinese Poker is the excessive level of luck involved, meaning absolutely anyone can play the game and have a decent chance of winning, even against experience Chinese Poker players.

With 13 cards and three hands to develop, the basic idea is to win at least two out of the three hands, resulting in a profit. Scooping is the ultimate goal, however, winning a very large sum by claiming the bets on all hands, from all players. With only two players, the game is not so costly, but with the maximum of four players, Chinese Poker can be quite lucrative, or very expensive. High stakes Chinese Poker players like Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth, have been known to play upwards of $1,000-unit stakes.

Chinese Poker was actually featured in two events of the 1995 and 1996 World Series of Poker, but has not since been present in WSOP events. The major hazard of playing Chinese Poker without a decent knowledge of the rules is miss-setting a hand, which results in immediate loss of all three hands to all players.

Make sure you are well aware of the rules of chinese poker and get some practice before playing for real money. One of the best ways to practice chinese poker is to play against real players by seting up an account at Tiger Poker. Tiger Poker has online chinese poker games that you can play for free as well as real money games.